SGAC at the Republican Debate in Dartmouth

On October 11th 2011, members of the Student Global AIDS Campaign and our allies marched to the doors of the Republican Debate at Dartmouth College to demand that each candidate release a comprehensive plan to end AIDS.

We marched through the buildings where the candidates' campaigns were meeting, to make sure they heard our message directly. We dropped a giant banner from the roof of the building across the street. We held multiple "die-ins" across campus, to highlight the real consequences of inaction on AIDS. We went to events for every candidate and raised this issue, garnering press coverage from the Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, the Boston Herald, and at least six other media outlets.

And perhaps most excitingly, after being questioned repeatedly by students in the lead-up to the debate, five of the candidates responded to students' demands to fund global AIDS programs. Their answers ranged from "we'll see" to "we need to protect foreign aid from cuts", which shows how far we've come from the days when candidates said flat-out "no, we have to cut funding for everything".